Rise Of Ethnopopulism

The Rise of Ethnopopulism in Latin America
Raúl L. Madrid

World Politics, Volume 60, Number 3, April 2008, pp. 475-508 (Article)

Published by Cambridge University Press DOI: 10.1353/wp.0.0012

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The Rise ofeThnopopulism in laTin ameRica
By Raúl l. madRid*

Latin America had long been the one region in the world without major ethnic parties. in recent years, however, important parties that are based to varying degrees in the indigenous population have emerged in the region. The most successful of these movements have been ethnopopulist parties, inclusive ethnically based parties that adopt classicalpopulist electoral strategies.1 Whereas exclusionary ethnic parties have registered little electoral success, ethnopopulist parties have won significant legislative or presidential victories in the andean nations. in Bolivia, evo morales and the movimiento al socialismo (mas) won a resounding victory in the 2005 presidential elections, after coming in second in the 2002 elections. in ecuador anotherethnopopulist party, the movimiento unidad plurinacional pachakutik (mupp), has maintained a significant presence in the legislature since 1996 and helped elect lucio Gutiérrez president in 2002 and Rafael correa in 2006. What accounts for the success of these new ethnically based parties in latin america?2 Why have they been more successful than traditional ethnic parties? and why have theycombined populist and ethnic appeals? understanding the causes of the success of these new ethnically based parties is important from a practical standpoint because these movements are already having important effects. The election of evo
* The author would like to thank daniel Brinks, Jason Brownlee, henry dietz, Jorge domínguez, Ken Greene, merilee Grindle, austin hart, Juliet hooker, Wendy hunter,steve levitsky, Tse-min lin, scott mainwaring, Robert moser, Kurt Weyland, the students in his graduate seminar on latin american politics, and the three anonymous referees for very helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. The Teresa lozano-long institute for latin american studies at the university of Texas at austin provided funding for the field research that made this articlepossible. 1 i define an inclusive party as one that recruits members of various ethnic groups for the top leadership positions of the party, forms alliances with organizations that represent a diversity of ethnic groups, eschews exclusionary rhetoric, and emphasizes that it seeks to represent all members of the nation. 2 in social science parlance, the dependent variable of this study is the performanceof ethnically based parties in latin america.

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World Politics 60 (april 2008), 475–508

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morales in Bolivia, for example, has led to state intervention in the country’s natural gas industry, the passage of land reform, the expansion of education in indigenous languages, and the convening of a constituent assembly to redesign the country’s politicalinstitutions. similarly dramatic changes may well occur if ethnopopulist leaders take power elsewhere in the region. The rise of the new ethnically based parties is puzzling from a theoretical perspective because it contradicts some of the expectations of the scholarly literatures on populism and ethnic parties. Whereas the literature on ethnic parties would not expect such parties to make ethnicallyinclusive appeals, the literature on populism would not expect populist parties to make ethnic appeals at all. Thus, neither the scholarly literature on ethnic parties nor the literature on populism can easily account for the emergence and success of ethnopopulist parties. another scholarly literature, the indigenous politics literature, has generated important insights into why powerful...